Automotive alternators usually have a housing which is divided in axial direction. The housing contains two end bells located at the axial facing ends of the alternator. One of these ends is the drive end, usually supplied with a pulley to be driven by a V-belt from the automotive engine with which the alternator is to be used. The other end bell may, additionally, function as a support and/or cooling element for a rectifier diode assembly, voltage regulators, and the like. The end bells or end disks of the alternator are connected by axially extending circumferentially positioned bolts, which also clamp the stator structure therebetween. The end bells retain the bearings for the shaft of the alternator.
It has previously been proposed to construct small electrical hand tools, such as hand drills and the like, by using housings made of plastic or die-cast metal in half-shell construction in which the housing shells are separated in a plane which is parallel to, and usually passes through the axis of the machine shaft. Such constructions are particularly used with small hand tools which are to be made inexpensively, may be subject to repair, and which have low requirements on reliability, operating power or efficiency, and are generally subjected only to intermittent use involving hardly any rise in operating temperature.